LJ track: Wiser enjoyed stability after LJHS

By Ed Piper

Janice Wiser, the only San Diego female athlete to win both sprints--the 100- and 220-yard dashes, in her case--in the CIF State Meet, attended four schools in four years during her dominance in her sport.

That must have required incredible resilience and dexterity, as her coach, Tracy Sundlun, certainly got the best out of the young runner. She ran the 400 meters later in the summer of 1974 in 53.53 seconds, after her dual victories in the CIF meet, still the second-fastest time ever by a San Diego prep runner.

But the toll was great. Wiser had to move from one coast to the other, attending Northwestern High in Hyattsville, Maryland her sophomore year, then moving to San Luis Obispo across the country for her junior year at SLO High, and finally La Jolla High her senior year, when she unleashed her twin wins in Bakersfield without the support of a Vikings girls track team around her.

Janice went on the next year to begin four years running for San Diego State and Coach Mary Alice Hill.

"I didn't have time for extracurricular activities," recalled Wiser in 2020 to a reporter. She was more than occupied with school and AAU club track under Sundlun during her senior year as a Viking.

"I didn't know a lot of people in La Jolla," the former runner told this reporter in an interview Fri., June 27. That was the nature of the beast, as Sundlun, who Janice said "was a great coach" (he also still lives in the San Diego area), convinced her parents to let her go to San Luis Obispo when he took a job at Cal Poly SLO. She lived with a family there while attending high school and running.

Then that quickly turned around to be a move on to La Jolla and her year at LJHS. She graduated from La Jolla High, though the school didn't yet have a girls track team. She worked out with the boys team under Coach Chuck Boyer. Her personal coach, Sundlun, set up a few meets during the spring track season. That led up to winning the San Diego Section meet in three events: the 100, 220, and 440 (all at the yard distances--school track had not yet converted over to the meter distances).

Yet, obviously enjoying the excitement of the success she experienced in running for La Jolla, then SDSU, Wiser landed on her feet and went on to live out a stable, secure existence in San Diego. Just talk with her. She will share that joy. It's not puffed up; it's not about her; but she definitely enjoys talking about her running and her former coach, Sundlun.

She and her future husband, Robert Pope, met in 1973. He was enrolled at UCSD. She had recently enrolled at La Jolla High. "She was 17, I was 18," he stated Thurs., June 26, in an interview prior to Janice's talk with this reporter. They have now been married 49 years, and have two grown children and four grandchildren, whom they adore and whose activities they follow closely: Anthony, 19; Tommy; Robby; and Maya.

LJ track: Wiser: 'I fouled out of every (basketball) game'

Janice Wiser, LJ track phenom in 1974,

in her red Viking running wear.

(Yearbook photo)

By Ed Piper

You've heard about Janice Wiser Pope's exploits as a one-person girls track team for La Jolla High in 1974--she is the only female athlete to win both the 100 and 200 (or equivalents) at the CIF State Meet in the history of the California event.

But there's a funny story about her, unrelated to running track.

Let her tell the story.

"I love basketball," said Pope in an interview Sat., June 28. "I fouled out of every game!"

In her aggressiveness and trying to get the ball, Janice would "try to get on top" of the ball in the hands of the player she was defending. 

"I wanted to stay in (the game), but I never did."

Confessions of a great athlete--though on the running oval, not on the basketball court.

Wiser Pope, who later married her husband, Robert Pope, thus the name addition/change, went on to run for four years at San Diego State and excel in the sprints.

Another thing she has excelled in: Robert and she have been married now for 49 years. Now, that's dedication. "She was 17, I was 18," her husband noted for the time they met, he a student at UCSD, she still in high school in her one year as a Viking.

She worked at the switchboard in the high school office as an elective. "It was just like you see in the movies," she said. "I had to plug the wire in to the correct connection." She learned it pretty well--there are a lot of students this former teacher of high school students wouldn't let work the telephones.

She must have exhibited good people skills, as she continues to employ now. Her manner during the interview was friendly, open, willing to engage, and informative, as she mined memories from 51 years ago--obviously a wonderful time for her, recollecting the coaching she received from coach Tracy Sundlun, her AAU coach who brought her from Northwestern High in Hyattsville, Maryland, to San Luis Obispo High while he coached at Cal Poly SLO, then La Jolla, where he coached at the La Jolla Track Club.

The rest is history.

LJ track: Janice Wiser update

It has been 51 years since Janice Wiser, a student at La Jolla High who worked in the front office while still going to school, suddenly "became" the girls track team at LJHS and nearly won the state title in Spring 1974.

Wiser, who continues to live in San Diego and has been married all these years since, decided to run for the Vikings--when they didn't yet have an actual girls track squad--and won both the 100- and 200-yard dashes at the CIF state meet.

She could have won the state team championship for La Jolla High if she had run the quarter-mile the next day. But she declined, and the rest is history.

"Janice ran the 100 and 220 just to work out," said her husband, Robert Pope, contacted Thurs., June 26. "The race she was really good at was the 400."

Her workouts and competing were all for her AAU team, until the invitation to run for her school came up.

Janice Wiser is the reason CIF made a rule that a track and field athlete has to compete in a minimum number of meets for their school during the regular season, to qualify for postseason competition.

The fact Wiser could step in and instantly win those races at that high a level of competition, at the end of the Spring season, shows how dominant she was in her sport.

Back then, clocked times were hand-held. Times were not electronically tracked. That preceded the "modern era" when, even at the high school level, those things are taken for granted.

You had dirt tracks, not an all-weather surface. The shoes were "crummy" compared to the high-tech "kicks" athletes wear now.

Robert, her husband, was not a track athlete. "I was at UCSD" when he met his future wife. "She was 17. I was 18."

Pope graduated from Thomas Jefferson High in L.A. He was a baseball player. A trio of athletes came out of his alma mater to play in the pros: David and Michael Edwards, one of whom played for the Padres, and another baseball player.

Robert graduated from high school in the class of 1972. Janice graduated in 1974.

LJ FB: Pomare looking good

Rising soph Kaden Pomare (88)

before the first game at USD

Team Camp Sat., June 21.

(Photos by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

"(Kaden Pomare) is going to be playing on both sides of the ball," said Viking head coach Tyler Roach during a morning workout Wed., June 25.

Pomare, a 6'2" rising sophomore, maybe running 175 pounds, looked good during the USD Team Camp Sat., June 21, where La Jolla went 2-3 in 7-v-7 games against teams from San Diego, greater L.A., and elsewhere.

The curly-haired Kaden, who sports a riot of hair flying out in all directions, had a pass reception on La Jolla's first possession, on quarterback Hudson Smith's first play from scrimmage, in a 24-6 win over Pinnacle (Phoenix). The throw was to the left-middle.

Pomare (a teammate pronounces it "poh-MAR-uh") then grabbed another Smith aerial for a touchdown three plays later, the Vikings' first score to tie the 20-minute game 6-6.

It was La Jolla's first TD of the morning, coming in the second contest at 10:42 a.m. The initial game of the day ended in a 13-4 loss to Charter Oak (Covina).

Roach's offense subsequently scored again on TD passes to junior Nico Bardaro, senior Lukas Grismer, and junior Aiden Hogan.

Roach, in the conversation Wednesday, acknowledged Pomare has size. His lean frame will likely fill out as he does weight training and his body matures.

"He just turned 15," the head coach noted.

Pomare (right) prepares to go out for a pass,

with Viking QB Hudson Smith in the background.

Kaden took a pass for a TD on La Jolla's

way to a 24-6 victory over Pinnacle (Phoenix)

in the second game of the day at USD.

LJ FB: 'Whitt' new with CB's

Damarious "Whitt" Whitten,

new cornerbacks coach for the

Vikings. He snagged 9 picks

and was named Marine Corps

"Defensive Player of the Year"

in his playing days.

(Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

"Defensive Player of the Year" at cornerback in the Marine Corps, and someone who played at Steeler great Ben Roethlisberger's high school alma mater--those are things to get people's attention.

Damarious "Coach Whitt" Whitten steps in as new staff for the Viking corners. The courteous mentor with braids, on the sidelines for La Jolla's games at the USD Camp 7-v-7 games Sat., June 21, allowed as how he starred at Findlay (Ohio) High, where QB Roethlisberger spun a few passes years ago.

He also played at Old Redford High in Detroit, Michigan, during his prep days.

Damarious recorded nine interceptions from the cornerback position to garner the Marine Corps award. A reporter noted that that was same number of picks current Viking senior Carson Diehl led the county with during his sophomore year in 2023. "That's the real challenge, is when you're known and they're coming at you," commented the assistant coach.

The Viking staff will have other changes in 2025, as Randy Cowell will occupy the Defensive Coordinator spot opposite Head Coach Tyler Roach's direction of the offense.

Associate Head Coach Scott "Juice" Hughley, a big favorite with players during his five years coaching at La Jolla, has moved over to Del Norte's football program, where he also works during the day as a campus supervisor.

LJ FB: USD Camp game story

The Vikings' most recent offseason competition

took place June 21 at the USD Camp, the campus

on a hill in San Diego, (Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

"Not our best showing," commented La Jolla head coach Tyler Roach. "We were just a little off all day."

Roach was reacting to his team's 2-3 showing in the USD Camp 7-v-7 tournament Sat., June 21. The Vikings, with senior quarterback Hudson Smith targeting receivers Nico Bardaro, Aiden Farrell, Logan Clark, Emerson Rota, and others, lost their first game at 9:30 a.m. to Charter Oak (Covina), 13-4, without scoring a touchdown.

After the 20-minute timed game, La Jolla had a short rest on a warm morning until 10:33, when the Vikings' scheduled game kicked off with their opponent, Pinnacle (Phoenix), again getting the ball on offense first.

This time, Smith and crew got off to a better start, tying the contest 6-6 on their first possession with a TD reception by Kaden Pomare. The extra point attempt failed.

The La Jolla defense, featuring middle linebacker Charlie Martin, cornerback Lukas Grismer, and linebacker Joseph Crudo, among others, stopped the Pioneers on their next possession, with three "time"'s being called--the equivalent of a sack, without tackling in 7-v-7.

Then Huddy found Bardaro in open area where Nico had room to run for touchdown number two, 12-6, before the extra point pass in the middle of the field to the same receiver was off.

After Martin's pick, La Jolla came back with a Smith-Grismer connection toward the left sideline on the first down played, 18-6. Smith's throw in the center to Rota on the extra point failed.

Roach's offense, with a "bigger" QB, as La Jolla's program described the senior earlier this offseason, had more points up its sleeve with Hudson's TD completion to Aiden Hogan. The final was 24-6.

La Jolla went 1-2 the rest of the day.

LJ FB: More photos - Charter Oak game 6/21

Photos by Ed Piper

Nico Bardaro takes in a Hudson Smith

pass in the middle under close coverage.

Corner Aiden Farrell (behind) makes the stop

on a Charter Oak receiver on first-and-goal.

Hudson Smith, with a year of seasoning as

the starting QB, cocks to fire.

On the fifth pass of the game, Charter Oak scores

a TD as coverage gets leaky. CO won the 20-minute

game, 13-6.